Once Upon a Summer Night

A woman seeks to make amends with the family she left behind in Jacobs’s sweet third Bourbon Falls romance (after Once Upon a Christmas Beauty). After firefighter Hannah Brooks’s friend Beth dies from cancer, Hannah hopes to adopt Beth’s seven-year-old son, Noah, whom she has helped raise. When Noah’s paternal grandparents, who have never been in Noah’s life, try to block the adoption, Hannah returns to her hometown of Bourbon Falls, Ind., from Kankakee, Ill., with Noah in tow for some much needed familial support—even though she hasn’t seen her family in eight years. One of the first people she runs into is her former best friend, Chase Redding, who was supposed to come with her when she left as a teen to get away from her domineering fire chief father and help Beth with her unplanned pregnancy. Chase, a fellow firefighter who’s now running the local department on behalf of Hannah’s injured father, has never forgotten Hannah, and their rekindled friendship is soon complicated by sizzling attraction and stolen kisses. As Hannah fights for Noah and rebuilds her relationship with her father, she must choose whether to stay and explore her romance with Chase or return to her life in Illinois. Jacobs makes Bourbon Falls as appealing as ever, with folksy, down-to-earth characters and charming romance. Series fans will be well pleased. (Apr.)